GILROY -- On a sprawling grassy field, eight helmeted riders are galloping at 25 mph after a small white ball, their horses' hooves pounding the turf.

Polo, that game of ancient Persians and Moghuls, British cavalrymen and Argentine superstars, is striving to become another Silicon Valley upstart sport. On Sunday, a small but devoted cadre of players won beer mugs and braids of garlic for their success in the fledgling Garlic Cup.

The hosting South Bay Polo Club won the tournament.

But the two-day competition wasn't so much about who won or lost, or even how they played the game. On the polo circuit, with the natural hazards posed by speeding 1,200-pound thoroughbreds and swinging mallets, safe play is foremost. But South Bay Polo is largely designed to recruit new players and grow the sport, said its San Jose organizer, Terry Reilly.

"Try it, you'll like it" could be their motto -- because that's what happened to them.

Jack Ajluni, 53, of Menlo Park, purchased horses for himself and his girlfriend to ride about 12 years ago. Then, the manager of the Menlo Circus Club, the equestrian center in Atherton, put a mallet in his hand and challenged him. "I rode up to the ball and smashed it," he said, "then I tried again and whiffed." He was hooked.

"I dumped the girlfriend and bought more horses."

During winters, Ajluni, who owns a hair salon in downtown Menlo Park, would fly to Palm Springs every Thursday to play, returning on Mondays for the work week. He spent time in Argentina, the world's polo capital, where he purchased horses. "My whole life revolved around polo -- and I'm an amateur."

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Total horsemanship

At the tournament, teams borrowed players from one another -- no big deal since many players belong to several teams. It's a tight-knit group, including some like Ajluni who travel the polo circuit. During warmer months, there are twice-weekly games and practices at the South Bay Polo Club's Gilroy field and also at the 90-year-old Menlo Polo Club in Atherton. For the winter, play shifts to the Southern California desert.

While generating an adrenaline rush that players report is unmatched, polo is also a strategic game, one of positioning on a field three times as long and twice as wide as a football field. Like other field sports, the game's object is for one team to amass the most points by shooting the ball between its end-line goal posts.

Play is so intense that each horse gets rotated out every chukker -- the 7½-minute quarters. But the human effort of strategic riding is also an athletic feat. "You have to use your whole body," said Ann Terranova, 56, of San Mateo. "It's not just sitting on a horse. It's all equitation" -- horsemanship.

She took up polo about five years ago after her two children left her with an empty nest.

"You have to die every time on the field. It takes a lot of energy," said Doug Blumenthal, at 24 one of the few U.S. professional polo players. He's had his share of broken collarbones, dislocated shoulders and ankle injuries, but that's the physical toll of the game. In playing polo, he said, "it's nice to be able to appreciate the moment." He trains polo horses in the winter at his home in Indio and plays the circuit the rest of the year.

Shooter supremacy

Club boosters are trying to remake polo's snooty image as an elite sport for rich men. "A lot of people think you need to be, like, Prince Harry to play," said Jessica Mignone, 36, of Morgan Hill. The club includes "regular people doing regular jobs -- Mignone is a user-experience designer for a high-tech firm. The amateur level holds no competitive disadvantage for women or lighter-weight players. "A better rider will outplay a better shooter any day," she said.

Vineet Sharma, of Menlo Park, takes a philosophical approach: "There's an imperfect world below you" -- opponents in the way, difficult angles of play, a speeding horse -- he said, "and in that imperfect world you have to find the most perfect play."

Born in Jodhpur, India, the namesake city of riding pants, Sharma, 36, said, "I had every reason to play polo." But the platform manager of a social gaming company said he didn't pick it up until playing while vacationing in Thailand.

To play polo, Silicon Valley players don't need to own a horse; they can rent them for a chukker, a match or longer. The club offers lessons on Fridays.

Players are convinced that, like themselves, someone trying polo once will be hooked.